The use of suction to complement or facilitate any of a variety of medical services and procedures is known in the art. The Yankauer suction tip, for example, is an oral suctioning tool used in medical procedures. The Yankauer suction tip is typically a firm plastic suction tip having a large opening surrounded by a bulbous head and is designed to allow effective suction without damaging surrounding tissue. This tool serves, for example, to suction oropharyngeal secretions in order to prevent aspiration. A Yankauer suction tip can also be used to clear operative sites during surgical procedures.
Suctioning tools often include a hand-graspable handle. So configured, the medical-services technician can firmly grip and manipulate the suctioning tool as desired. In some cases the handle includes an on-off switch to permit the technician to selectively fully open and fully close the suction pathway.
Some prior art suctioning-tool handles are also configured to work with a separate, additional component that can be selectively connected in-line with the pneumatic pathway of the handle. This separate component can have an external opening that pneumatically couples to the primary suctioning pathway. By partially occluding that external opening (for example, with a thumb) the technician can selectively vary the strength of the suction being applied via the suctioning tool. This capability can be useful when the technician seeks to apply only a modest, reduced amount of suction instead of the full suction being provided by the suction system.
Although useful, existing solutions in these regards are not necessarily wholly satisfactory to meet the needs of all application settings and all users. As one example in these regards, many suctioning tool handles are prepackaged with a separate thumb-port suction control component. In many cases, however, that ability to exert control over how much suction is being applied (rather than merely controlling the on-off suction state) is either unnecessary or unwanted by the technician. In those cases, it can represent a waste of material and resources to have included that separate thumb-port suction control component.
Elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioning of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present teachings. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present teachings. Certain actions and/or steps may be described or depicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in the art will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence is not actually required. The terms and expressions used herein have the ordinary technical meaning as is accorded to such terms and expressions by persons skilled in the technical field as set forth above except where different specific meanings have otherwise been set forth herein.